EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on April 8, 2022.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
Holy Week begins Sunday for tens of millions of Christians worldwide.
It begins with Palm Sunday, when Jesus, the son of God, rode humbly on a donkey into Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover. According to the Bible, he was greeted by throngs of people laying down their cloaks and palm leaves celebrating his coming, a stark contrast to what will happen just days later.
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday also take place during Holy Week. Christians celebrate Maundy Thursday as the day on which Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Last Supper of Christ, today known as communion to many. And in the largest misnomer in history, Good Friday commemorates Jesus’ trial, persecution and death on the cross.
Interestingly, Holy Week doesn’t end with Easter, when Jesus rises from the tomb just as he said he would. But the end is actually Holy Saturday, or Easter Vigil.
Holy Week and Easter together are the pinnacle of the Christian calendar, an eight-day span in which Christians’ hold the world’s despair, sin, death and injustice in tension with the sheer and utter joy experienced in knowing that Jesus conquers all of the world’s evil by rising from the grave.
Millions of faithful, even those who long ago gave up on institutionalized religion, will flock to places of worship to witness the miracle of Easter morning, and to hear their faith leaders declare: “He is not here, but has risen!” (Luke 24:5)
Some might wonder why celebrate Easter at all in the face of current global circumstances. What joy possibly can be found in the unjust war in Ukraine; thousands still dying daily from COVID; and poverty and oppression raging all around us?
But the joy of Jesus Christ conquering death and evil on Easter morning IS why! … Faithful the world over will gather, taking hope in the resurrection despite the despair we see all around us because God is not done in this world. He has risen from the grave and still is very active in current events.
That is why we celebrate! … We celebrate that God is not done with this world yet!
Easter is about resurrection, about conquering death, about renewal of a world that clings to unfair and devastating earthly values rather than the values exhibited in God’s Kingdom.
And even in this year, when it seems we cannot escape the cloud of despair enveloping this earth, we still celebrate the Son of God, coming to earth to live among us, suffering like us and voluntarily taking death to his grave with him so that we don’t have to.
Allelujah! … The Lord has risen indeed!
Devlyn Brooks, who works for Modulist, a Forum Communications Co.-owned company, is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He serves as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He can be reached at devlyn.brooks@forumcomm.com for comments and story ideas.
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